³¹ Wail,^(A) you gate!^(B) Howl, you city!
    Melt away, all you Philistines!^(C)
A cloud of smoke comes from the north,^(D)
    and there is not a straggler in its ranks.^(E)

²⁵ “I have stirred^(A) up one from the north,^(B) and he comes—
    one from the rising sun who calls on my name.
He treads^(C) on rulers as if they were mortar,
    as if he were a potter treading the clay.

²⁰ Disaster follows disaster;^(A)
    the whole land lies in ruins.^(B)
In an instant my tents^(C) are destroyed,
    my shelter in a moment.

¹² “Can a man break iron—
    iron from the north^(A)—or bronze?

“See how the waters are rising in the north;^(A)
    they will become an overflowing torrent.
They will overflow the land and everything in it,
    the towns and those who live in them.
The people will cry out;
    all who dwell in the land will wail^(B)

³ A nation from the north^(A) will attack her
    and lay waste her land.
No one will live^(B) in it;
    both people and animals^(C) will flee away.

⁹ For I will stir^(A) up and bring against Babylon
    an alliance of great nations^(B) from the land of the north.^(C)
They will take up their positions against her,
    and from the north she will be captured.^(D)
Their arrows^(E) will be like skilled warriors
    who do not return empty-handed.